Need ideas for a bar mitzvah dessert

[zilla369]

...the clients told the maitre d' that their son likes the desserts at cheesecake factory, like the candy-bar themed cheesecakes. This dessert will be just for the kids at the party; the adults will be having a separate dessert.

They want something "different", but something the guest of honor will like, of course.

Ideas, please? i'll need to make a prototype this weekend.

[tsquare]

Marbled halvah cheesecake decorated with chocolate coins!

[hillvalley]

What about a make your own brownie bar? Put a brownie in a bowl and provide all the fixing: whipped cream, caramel sauce, sprinkles, different candy bars broken up into pieces. It would be cheaper and easier than cheesecake and you do not have a refridgeration problem.

I work with a non-profit group that caters about half a dozen Bar/Bat Mitzvahs a year and this is always a huge hit.

[JFLinLA]

The caterer provided the ice cream sundae bar and I provided the dessert bar at my son's Bar Mitzvah. It contained items both kid and adult friendly though many adults chose the brownies, chocolate chip cookies and sundae's over or along with the other items. I like the "brownie sundae" idea a lot. The 13 year olds will love it.

[KatieLoeb]

There used to be an ice cream chain here in Philadelphia that had all the toppings you could imagine for your ice cream. Some of the choices were chocolate chips, jimmies, crushed oreos, crushed Vanilla wafers, crushed graham crackers, different sauces (chocolate and strawberry), different fruit toppings (which I suspect were either canned pie fillings or canned fruit that was buzzed through the processor), chopped Kit Kat bars, Heath bars, Snickers, Milky Ways, non-pareils, jelly beans, red hots, etc. If you put out bowls of these various toppings along with the brownies and ice cream the kids would have a blast and it would be a total no-brainer. If the bowls were disposable, it'd be minimal clean up as well

[zilla369]

The "bar" ideas are interesting, but i have to say, the parents are paying quite a bit for the food, and i'm afraid they might be offended if i suggested that option. I'll think about it some more.

I need dessert for about 15 kids. The event isn't Kosher, either.

[bloviatrix]

What about a riff on the Viennese Table with kid friendly desserts?

I went to a bat mitzvah last year, and when they rolled out the Viennese Table the guests went wild. It was as if a pack of locusts descended.

[herbacidal]

The "bar" ideas are interesting, but i have to say, the parents are paying quite a bit for the food, and i'm afraid they might be offended if i suggested that option.  I'll think about it some more.

I need dessert for about 15 kids.  The event isn't Kosher, either.

i'm not sure i understand.

you think the parents would be offended by a buffet style dessert for the kids, because it's declasse or something?

FWIW, i've worked somewhere between 30 and 100 bar/bat mitzvahs in the past 7 years, on the server side.

based on what you've said so far:

i'd go with 2 cakes, 1 candy bar-based, 1 other

vanilla ice cream with bowls of crumbled oreo cookies, Reese's Pieces, peanuts, jimmies, chocolate sauce

the monkeywrench for me is the low # of kids. if there's higher #s, you can have more choices. that's why the selection is so limited

if this doesn't work, i would suggest you elaborate more on why the dessert bar type thing doesn't work. i've done plenty where the adults had a plated 3 course meal and the kids had a buffet that turned over to a dessert buffet.

Edited October 29, 2003 by herbacidal (log)

[KatieLoeb]

I'm with Herb on this one. Having been a "Cater-Waiter" for many years I've been to more than my share of Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. And that doesn't even count when they were the Social Event of the 7th grade!

Buffets for the kids are quite common, at least around these parts. If you think it would impress the Parental Units more or justify your fees you could make the ice cream yourself perhaps. But I think anything that is well thought out, well presented and executed will be appreciated. Especially if it keeps the little delinquents occupied and away from trying to nick drinks at the bar or whatever other trouble their little pubescent minds can dream up!

[zilla369]

Hmmm. Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong. I just figured they would think we were "cheaping out" with a brownie bar. It would be super easy to do a brownie bar with toppings.

How does one serve ice cream in a "buffet" situation? Scoop their own? Provide a scooping waitperson?

[tan319]

Hmmm.  Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong.  I just figured they would think we were "cheaping out" with a brownie bar.  It would be super easy to do a brownie bar with toppings.

How does one serve ice cream in a "buffet" situation?  Scoop their own?  Provide a scooping waitperson?

Could be, Zilla.

I think the buffet bar thing could be cool.

especially with all these waiters weighing in on it.

The CCF thing would have confused the hell out of me, that's for sure.

My experience is that kids don't like nice, they want choices and fun, all that.

Good luck on this, sounds fun.!

[KatieLoeb]

Hmmm.  Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong.  I just figured they would think we were "cheaping out" with a brownie bar.  It would be super easy to do a brownie bar with toppings.

How does one serve ice cream in a "buffet" situation?  Scoop their own?  Provide a scooping waitperson?

Zilla:

I don't know how many staff persons you were planning on having with you, but I'd think that one person helping serve brownies or giant chocolate chip cookies with tongs/gloves as the "bottoms" of the sundaes and another doing ice cream scooping duty and replenishing the toppings as they run out would be fine. Definitely do NOT let 13 year olds loose with ice cream scoops and free access to frozen weapons. You'll have a food fight on your hands in no time!

Set up the bowls at the beginning of the line, the "bottoms" person next, the scooper next and then the toppings in bowls with spoons to "dress-their-own". Bowls of whipped cream are also safer than cans of whipped topping. No need to get the little buggers stoned on the propellant! Been there, seen this - trust me. If you want to do a cool presentation of the toppings, perhaps having them spill out of little cornucopias or some such nonsense would look nice. Or maybe if you could reproduce the labels of the toppings in color copies and paste them around the outsides of containers (empty coffee cans or something else disposable?) that held each type of topping? Get a glue gun and pretend to be Martha!

[Wendy DeBord]

Do you have a large marble slab? If so how about making cold slab ice creams to order? You could make your own cones if you wanted to impress them.

[herbacidal]

Hmmm.  Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong.  I just figured they would think we were "cheaping out" with a brownie bar.  It would be super easy to do a brownie bar with toppings.

How does one serve ice cream in a "buffet" situation?  Scoop their own?  Provide a scooping waitperson?

brownie bar sounds fine as well.

the way we used to do it was after the ice cream was made,

it's scooped out and placed on trays and re-froze.

when you're ready to serve, you take all the scoops and put them in the container.

would also suggest pading the bottom of a large container with ice (keeps ice cream cold longer, and also takes up space so container doesn't look so empty), with a service napkin in between the ice and ice cream.

you can either have a server serve the ice cream or have the kids pick it up themselves; either way, best utensil is nice tongs.

[KatieLoeb]

Do you have a large marble slab? If so how about making cold slab ice creams to order? You could make your own cones if you wanted to impress them.

This is a great idea but sounds like it might be time consuming to serve each guest. I was under the impression that the places that do this "slab-mix-in" thing had special marble tables with installed cooling coils beneath. Anybody ever work at a Thomas Sweet or similar location and can answer this question?

[Alex]

Hmmm.  Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong.  I just figured they would think we were "cheaping out" with a brownie bar.  It would be super easy to do a brownie bar with toppings.

If I were a parent there, I'd be impressed that you actually thought about what the kids would like. I'd be further impressed by the kids' thinking that the brownie/ice cream bar was the coolest thing about the whole party.

I would have traded half my baseball card collection for a dessert like that at my bar mitzvah reception.

[KatieLoeb]

Zilla:

Having just re-read the entire thread I think you can do the best of both worlds and blow away your clients as well.

Do the brownie/sundae bar for the kids and a small Viennese table for the adults that has some sort of cheesecake type bars that you can cut into small squares along with the usual suspects of minature Linzer Tortes, etc. You can whip up a few trays of candy or other flavored cheese bars or marbled cheesecake type bars and just include them for the adults and the guest of honor will have anything and everything he could possibly desire and the parents will be duly impressed with your creativity and respect for their wishes

[herbacidal]

is the adult portion of the meal entirely plated, or do you have the option of giving them a dessert bar?

[Malawry]

At my brother's bar mitzvah, the chocolate fondue was a huge hit with the kids. Served with fruit skewers, marshmallows, chunks of pound cake and graham crackers. We just had a Viennese table at both my bat mitzvah and my wedding, and the young teen set handled both tables just fine. At my cousin's bat mitzvah at a country club in NC a few weeks ago they had bowls of prescooped ice cream with toppings for the kids buffet which seemed to go over well, but a lot of the kids were distracted by the presence of a sno-kone machine which had more vavavoom factor. Some kids were eating sno-kones before and after dinner...actually I think some of them ate sno-kones AS their dinner.

[bloviatrix]

but a lot of the kids were distracted by the presence of a sno-kone machine which had more vavavoom factor. Some kids were eating sno-kones before and after dinner...actually I think some of them ate sno-kones AS their dinner.

My neice had a cotton candy machine at her bat mitzvah last year. Once the kids had their fill, the adults all decided to get indulge as well.

I only point this out because if you do a cool dessert for the kids, many of the adults will want some instead of the dessert designated for them.

[Malawry]

I ate a sno-kone myself, as evidence of this theory.

[herbacidal]

I only point this out because if you do a cool dessert for the kids, many of the adults will want some instead of the dessert designated for them.

yes, that happens a lot.

but there's only so much you can plan for that. especially since you can't charge for it.

[JFLinLA]

For the sundae bar at my son's Bar Mitzvah, the caterer had some wait staff scooping the ice cream (I think there were about 3 flavors to choose from) and keeping an eye on the assortment of toppings. The dessert bar was on the other side of the room but there was lot's of "cross pollination" which was just fine.

This was the big hit -- a cappucino cart. Both the adults and kids lined up for this one as she made both hot and ice-blended drinks. My daughter has already requested this for her Bat Mitzvah.

[zilla369]

is the adult portion of the meal entirely plated, or do you have the option of giving them a dessert bar?

The adults have already chosen my bourbon sour mash bread pudding with sorghum creme fraiche as their plated dessert.

Man, you guys weren't kidding about the dessert bar being all the rage at bar/bat mitzvahs. I've been browsing caterers online and this is almost always an option. I've also seen lots of torah scroll cakes. Do people use a special pan for this, or is there a cute shortcut to making the "scroll" half-cylinders on the sides?

[KatieLoeb]

I've also seen lots of torah scroll cakes.  Do people use a special pan for this, or is there a cute shortcut to making the "scroll" half-cylinders on the sides?

Zilla:

I suspect that the scrolls are cakes baked in a cylindrical pan and then sliced in half. But I'm not a pastry chef, so I really am not certain.

Check out this link: SweetLisas Bar/Bat Mitzvah cakes

and click through the slide show for some cool alternative ideas to the open scroll thing. I don't know how fancy you want to get with a cake, but the "architechture" of some of these is a little easier to figure out.